Abigail: Meaning of Baby Name Abigail

About the Name Abigail

Abigail descends from the Hebrew Avigayil, composed of av (father) and gil (joy, rejoicing) — "my father is joy" or "father rejoices." The biblical Abigail is one of the more vividly drawn women of the Hebrew Bible: in 1 Samuel, she is the wise wife of the wealthy but foolish Nabal, who saves her household from David's wrath through her diplomatic intervention; after Nabal's death she becomes one of David's wives.

The name was rare in pre-Reformation English usage but was revived heavily by Puritan colonists in the 17th century along with other Old Testament names. The most consequential American bearer is Abigail Adams (1744–1818), wife of the second US president John Adams and mother of the sixth, John Quincy Adams. Her surviving correspondence — particularly with her husband — is one of the great primary-source documents of the American founding era; her famous "Remember the ladies" letter (March 1776) remains a foundational text of early American feminism.

Abigail's modern American boom began in the 1980s and pushed it to the US top 10 by 2005, where it remained for over a decade. The name's appeal is layered: deeply traditional and biblically anchored, but tonally fresh and approachable. Common nicknames are Abby (the dominant modern form), Abi, Gail (now itself an independent old-fashioned name), and Abigayle (a more recent re-spelling). Direct variants include the original Hebrew Avigayil, the Spanish Abigaíl, and the more compact Abilene (the latter actually a separate Hebrew place-name, often confused).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Abigail

1,531

Hebrew baby names in our dictionary

836

Hebrew female names

430

7-letter A-names in our dictionary

1,183

A-female names total

1989–2025

years of US SSA records (37 total)

383,135

total US births named Abigail (all years)

US Popularity History (1989–2025)

↘️ Falling: Abigail dropped 29 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#12 in 2020 → #41 in 2025).

Annual US births named Abigail by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2003 with 15,932 girls named Abigail (girl rank #6 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #41 for girls (4,941 US births). That's 35 places below its 2003 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Abigail Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Abigail the strongest states are Virginia, Idaho, Maryland.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Virginia	#12	2,260
2	Idaho	#12	498
3	Maryland	#14	1,391
4	Alaska	#15	204
5	Oregon	#15	907
6	Georgia	#15	2,288
7	North Carolina	#16	2,548
8	Washington	#16	1,793
9	New Hampshire	#16	337
10	California	#17	10,005

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Hawaii	#49	144
2	North Dakota	#44	189
3	Mississippi	#41	430
4	Iowa	#40	516
5	Nebraska	#36	368
6	Vermont	#35	106
7	South Dakota	#35	177
8	Wisconsin	#34	1,003
9	Louisiana	#33	797
10	Minnesota	#33	1,064

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Abigail in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Abagail	Gives Joy.	Female	Hebrew
Abba	Ghanaian Name For Females Born On Thursday.	Female	African
Abbey	My Father Rejoices. Biblical: The Name Of King David's Third Wife Described As Good In Discretion And Beautiful In Form.	Female	Hebrew
Abbie	"Gives Joy, My Father Rejoices. Biblical: The Name Of King David's Third Wife Described As Good In Discretion And Beautiful In Form."	Female	Hebrew
Abby	My Father Rejoices. Biblical: The Name Of King David's Third Wife Described As Good In Discretion And Beautiful In Form.	Female	Hebrew
Gail	Lively; Happy	Male	English

Famous People Named Abigail

3 notable figures from history and culture who share the name Abigail.

Abigail Adams — Political Wife (1744)
Abigail Breslin — Movie Actress (1996)
Abigail Fillmore was wife of Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States, the First Lady of America from 1850 to 1853.

Browse more famous Abigails and similar first names →

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Compare Abigail to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Abigail against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Abigail vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Abigail vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Abigail vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Abigail vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Abigail vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Abigail vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Abigail vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Abigail vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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